Introduction to the cob command

The cob command enables you to produce executable files of the following types:

Intermediate code

.int files are dynamically loadable, and don't need to be linked into a system executable.

Generated code

.gnt files are dynamically loadable, and don't need to be linked into a system executable.

Callable shared object files

These files are dynamically loadable, and don't need to be linked into a system executable (applies to UNIX environments only).

Shared library files

These are system linkable files that can be linked into executable files (applies to UNIX environments only). They cannot be directly executed themselves.

System executable files

These files are directly executable (applies to UNIX environments only). They are loaded by the operating system, which creates a new process in which to run them.

The cob command provides the interface between your COBOL source program and the following COBOL system components:

• The Compiler - to syntax check and compile your COBOL source files into intermediate (.int) code files, and to generate the .int files into generated (.gnt) or object (.o) code files
• The system linker - to link object code into a callable shared object, shared library or system executable file

It also provides an interface to the C++ compiler, cc (the C compiler) and as (the Assembler).

If the source code to be compiled contains characters beyond the standard 7-bit ASCII character set (for example, accented characters or characters belonging to multi-byte character sets), you must ensure that the locale has been set correctly, to match the source encoding of these characters. This means setting LANG, LC_CTYPE, or LC_ALL appropriately; each of these variables takes precedence over the former.